When most people think of branding, they think of USPs, or Unique Selling Propositions. Let me say that USP is dead. It’s pushing up the daisies. Forget the USP.

USP worked a long time ago. When Rosser Reeves created the term, he was very much aware that if you were first to market, your brand would definitely be the one that would stand out.

Today, the barriers to entry are very low. If you’re a life coach, there are 300,000 other life coaches out there. If you’re a small business owner, you’re competing unless you’re selling a truly unique product, which is kind of hard to find these days. Wherever you are, power to you.

Everyone has the same old, tired USP.

A life coach teaches you to improve yourself. A small business owner marketing guru is teaching you how to make money online. They all have the same function and benefit.

This fact has not gone unnoticed by large corporations such as IBM, Heineken and Nike. They know it too. Look at a shoe brand. All shoes have the same function. They make you jump higher and run faster. You don’t really deviate from that function.

After years and billions of dollars of research, they said, “USP is dead. Everyone has the same benefits. Now what?” This is a roundabout way of presenting the secret that will truly set one entrepreneur apart from another.

That secret is called UEP. That means Unique Emotional Proposal.

It’s a term I learned at Ogilvy. It’s in the inner sanctum of the Ogilvy archives and we were taught how to use it.

Let’s go back to the sneakers. A shoe is a shoe. How do they differ? How is Nike different from Adidas, Reebok and Puma? They locate an emotional call in someone and position themselves there.

For example, Nike says, “Just do it.” Talk about initiative. For Adidas, it’s “Impossible is nothing.” Talk about beliefs. With Reebok, it’s “your move.” Talk about responsibility. “The ball is in your court. Now do something with your life.”

For entrepreneurs to stand out, it is necessary to have a PEU. What is the one thing you want to occupy in your prospect’s emotional space? This is the fastest way to build your personal brand.